Younger Than We Are
by Pickles the Great
Summary: When we were younger than we are, the world seemed so much simpler. The early days of our favorite Jounin couple. Mild Asuma x Kurenai.


Because there's not enough Early!AsumaxKurenai out there.

&

The students of Konoha could all appreciate a beautiful day. This was possible for the fact that they never seemed to be able to enjoy it.

"_Senseeei!_" Obito complained loudly. "It's an awesome day outside! Why can't we train out there today?"

"Life is full of disappointments." Akizuki said disinterestedly, marking Obito's name off his list. "Get used to it. Iruka?"

"Here!" A boy with a scar over his nose raised his hand enthusiastically. The class groaned.

"Hn." Akizuki marked another name of the clipboard. "Rin?"

"Here!" A short red-haired girl said cheerfully. A few male heads turned her way.

Another check. "Kakashi?"

"Here." A bored voice radiated from the back of the room. A few girls giggled.

Akizuki ran his pen across the board again. "Asuma?"

No answer.

"Asuma?"

"Probably ditching again Sensei!" Iruka's voice shouted loudly. Akizuki nodded in assent. "Probably." He sighed. "Kurenai?"

"Here!" A girl with a dark curly ponytail called loudly. He grunted and checked the box next to her name. "That's everyone."

"Everyone except Sarutobi, you mean." Kakashi corrected him disinterestedly.

"Right. Everyone except Sarutobi." The Chuunin conceded. "Alright, since I don't feel like listening to you all complain, we can go train outside today. Happy, Uchiha?" He sighed. Cheers radiated throughout the classroom as the students scrambled out the door madly. "Hey, one at a time! Wait until I get out there, you damn kids!" Akizuki shouted after them.

&

The students of Konoha could always appreciate a beautiful day. Especially when they actually got to go outside and enjoy it.

"Very good Hatake." Their teacher nodded, going down the line. The students were practicing throwing stars on small dummies made of straw in the distance. There were several red circles placed along the statues as targets, presumably vital points. Missed stars were littered across the ground like leaves. "Rin, very nice. Umino, your target is the dummies. You are not to aim at the kunoichi. Meet me after class." He made comments as he went, tips for improvement or compliments, stopping very little. "Yuuhi." He nodded, stopping at Kurenai's target. "Very nice. You hit all the vitals. Good job. Go grab another dummy from the pile and stick it farther down the line. Nice work." He smiled at her. Kurenai nodded vigorously and ran to collect her statue. Other students scoffed at their posts.

"Yuuhi's such a teacher's pet."

"I know."

Kurenai ignored the jibes and ran to collect her straw target. She slowed down coming back.

"No, she's just good. You know who's the difficult one? Sarutobi."

"Oh I _know_. He thinks just because he's the Hokage's son he can do whatever he wants. Jerk."

"He's annoying too. He never _does_ anything. Ugh, he's such a weirdo."

Kurenai's eyebrows knitted. She knew Asuma was disliked, but she didn't know they talked about him with such ferocity. She almost felt a pang of pity. But it was quickly erased when she recalled the time he pulled her ponytail when she ignored him for the assignment they were partnered on. She touched it protectively at the memory. While she was adjusting her dummy over the pole, her red eyes caught a figure on the hill in the distance. A boy was lying in the grass staring at the sky with his arms folded behind his head. Curiosity attracted her to it. "Younha-sensei!" She called to her teacher. Akizuki turned towards her. "May I use the restroom?" Akizuki smiled and nodded. Kurenai dashed towards the direction of the building, but took a right when she reached the door, cutting through the trees to the hill where she saw the boy. Upon closer inspection, she found the figure to be none other than Sarutobi Asuma himself. Kurenai put her hands on her hips and coughed loudly. Asuma's eyes widened and he raised his head to look at her. Kurenai raised an eyebrow. Asuma sighed. "Oh good, it's just you." He lay himself back down in the grass. Kurenai huffed indignantly. "What do you mean 'just me'? I could turn you into Younha-sensei for this you know!" Asuma shrugged. "Do what you want." Her crimson eyes widened noticeably. "You could get kicked out of the academy for cutting class so often you know. Do you even care?"Asuma raised his head higher, following one of the clouds with his eyes. "Nope. I don't really have my heart set on becoming a ninja or anything." Kurenai let out a breath, disturbing a few stray hairs. She shrugged, admitting defeat and turned to leave. Asuma raised himself on his elbows "You aren't really going to tell Sensei, are you?" He called out after her. Kurenai smirked. "I could, you know." She said, turning to face him again. Asuma just scoffed. "Tch. Then you really are just a teacher's pet like everybody says." Kurenai's pride stung a little, but she shook it off. She walked back over to him, crouching on her knees next to his head. "And everybody says your a lazy jerk who rides on his father's coattails. But I guess you don't care about that either, huh?"

"Not really, no."

Kurenai huffed again, the hairs that didn't quite make it into her high brown ponytail ruffling slightly. "You're weird."

"And you're loud." Asuma retorted lazily. "You don't see me berating you for it."

Kurenai stared at him icily for a few moments. But grasping that he didn't mean it as an insult, she rocked back, landing on her bottom and adjusted herself to lie down beside him. "I have six older brothers and sisters. I have to be loud if I want to be heard." Asuma turned his head to look at her. He had a strange misty look in his eyes that Kurenai didn't quite understand. After a few moments, however, he turned back to look at the sky. "I have an older brother." He replied, following the trail of another cloud. "He just got married. He and his wife are trying to have a baby."

"That's nice." Kurenai smiled. She had always liked children.

"Mhmm." Asuma grunted. "He's a Jounin. He goes on missions all the time. I rarely see him anymore."

"I'm sorry." She said quietly. Though she did complain often of her siblings, she didn't know what she would do if she couldn't see them. She decided to change the subject. "Do you want kids someday?" She asked thoughtfully.

Asuma grinned slyly. "Is that an _offer_, Yuuhi-san?" He asked. Kurenai turned her head away and shouted to mask the shade of red her face had become. "You _wish_, Sarutobi! Jeesh, you know what, forget I even asked!" Asuma laughed heartily, causing her face to turn an even deeper red and shake with anger. She was just trying to be nice and he was laughing at her! No wonder he didn't have any friends!

She shot up to her feet like a bullet and began to walk away angrily when Asuma snapped up after her. "Hey, come on Yuuhi! I was just kidding! You don't have to go!"

Kurenai tried her best not to turn around despite her surprise. She didn't want to give him the pleasure of seeing her blush. But the fact that he wanted her to stay so badly was kind of nice.

"Y-" She cleared her throat, "You really that desperate for company, Sarutobi?" She asked loudly, trying to keep her voice steady. Asuma grunted indifferently, turning his head. "Maybe I am. And the names Asuma. Sarutobi is my Dad."

Kurenai gave in to the impulse and turned to face him, walking back to his side. "In that case, I'm Kurenai."

&

"Figures." Iruka scoffed. "The teacher's pet and the Daddy's boy getting all cozy."

In the two weeks after their encounter, Asuma and Kurenai had taken a lot of heat for their new friendship. Whenever they were seen together the jeers and insults were plentiful.

"Come off it Umino." Kakashi said boredly, flicking a fly out of his rice. "Don't take it out on Sarutobi just because Kurenai-chan wouldn't give you the time of day."

Iruka choked on his dumpling and Obito dropped his chopsticks. "_Whaaat?_ Iruka, you like Kurenai? Seriously?"

"No way!" Iruka shouted loudly, shaking his fist. "Kakashi's just making stuff up!" It did not change the fact, however, that his face was turning as red as Rin's hair. A girl dropped her rice ball to hit him on the head. "Don't you accuse Hatake-kun of such things! You jerk!"

The argument escalated in volume so that it could be heard all the way across the lunch yard. Kurenai and Asuma paused in their lunch to watch the violence unfold.

"Kids are weird." Asuma commented, taking another bite of his sandwich.

"Yup." Kurenai agreed, taking a sip of her tea.

&

I made so many grammatical errors it makes me want to barf up my brownies.


End file.
